I discovered that St. Patrick’s Day is not really celebrated in Sarajevo. When I asked some of my Bosnian colleagues about whether they were doing anything in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, their initial reaction was, “What is that?” Once I described the holiday, some of them nodded and said that maybe there was something going on in one of the two Irish Pubs in Bascarsija. They didn’t really understand why Matt was wearing green and pinching me and Sara for forgetting. J My American colleagues (as well as Matt’s girlfriend) were eager to party in honor of the holiday, and managed to find green beer, Irish car bombs, and other celebratory Americans at “Celtic Pub”.
In the meantime, my quintet continued our tour of Bosnia, and played our third concert in the city of Tuzla. I had heard of Tuzla before coming to Bosnia because my husband’s guitar teacher is from there. Vedran, the clarinetist from my quintet, told me a little bit more about the city on the way there. Tuzla is the third biggest city of Bosnia, located northwest of Sarajevo. It is famous for having salt mines, and has a long history of salt production. Apparently, parts of the city are now sinking (maybe on top of the mines?), and a lot of the buildings have floors that are no longer quite level!
My colleagues spoke quite highly of Tuzla, and it seems like most Bosnians I meet are fairly fond of the city. Although Tuzla was attacked during the war, it was not hit as hard as Sarajevo, so there is not quite as much damage. Most of Bosnia is so beautiful, so I had high expectations about how the city would look. When we got to Tuzla, however, I saw that the city is comprised of a lot of dirty, concrete, rather ugly buildings. The mountain scenery around the city is quite attractive, but I found it hard to enjoy the cityscape, especially after being so enchanted by Sarajevo and Mostar. I guess it’s the good people and the fun things to do in Tuzla that my colleagues like so much, and not the view of the city itself.
By contrast, the drive from Sarajevo to Tuzla was gorgeous. We wound our way along curvy roads, through the mountains with pine forests, past quaint small towns and villages. I was riding with our horn player, and he apologized for the windy, treacherous road, but I reassured him that I was used to it. It reminded me so much of being in Colorado. As I got sleepy, I half-expected to turn onto the road leading to my parents cabin in Evergreen!
Once my quintet arrived at our performance venue, we unloaded the car and headed inside to set up and have a brief rehearsal. It was quite odd, since we were in a large auditorium. However someone had created an intimate space appropriate for chamber music by drawing the curtains at the front of the stage, and then placing about 100 chairs around the sides and back of the stage. The lighting was a bit dim, but the acoustics were great. I was so excited to finally be able to perform in a room that was neither too live nor too dead.
Once we finished rehearsing, one of the administrators from the venue took our quintet out for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant called Biblioteka. Before a concert, I don’t like to eat too much, and I stick to relatively bland food, so I just had a bit of polenta with cream and cheese. It really hit the spot. Our quintet likes to talk a lot and enjoy themselves, so we went our again after the performance, to the “American University” student club, conveniently located inside the same building as our concert hall. The club was designed to imitate American bars, filled with pool tables and blaring classic American hits from the speakers. I was asked whether the bar reminded me of America, and I had to confess that it didn’t because everyone was smoking (something that’s now banned in all indoor public spaces in Denver, Baltimore, Chicago, etc).
I didn’t get home until very late on Thursday night, because it is quite a long drive from Tuzla back to Sarajevo. I was pretty tired, but stayed awake for the ride, since my colleagues, in true Bosnian fashion, spent the whole ride listening to music, singing, debating, and telling stories. I got home to my American friends winding up there St. Patrick’s Day festivities, but didn’t feel too left out, since I also got my fair share of fun for the evening.
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